It was the holidays. You might have eaten stuff that your brain didn’t want to, but your taste buds definitely did. And sometimes your taste buds won the battle. I escaped unscathed. I live with 5 cats and I eat what I bring into the house – because not one of the cats has ever taken the initiative to do the grocery shopping. For this I am profoundly thankful. Who knows what I’d be eating if one of them ever did. So as long as I make it around the grocery store without any of the scary stuff clambering into my basket, I’m good once I make it home. Phew. However, I totally understand that living with other humans, particularly small ones, can make the holiday season a food minefield – especially if they tag along to the store. Don’t despair! There’s Chocolate Hazelnut Granola.

One thing that will surely help a whole heck of a lot is having a bunch of recipes at your disposal to make it easy. Like this one for Chocolate Hazelnut Granola. You can grab the recipe for that fabulous Chocolate Yogurt Supreme pictured with it here.

See??

While everyone else you know will be eating a few mouthfuls of fat-free, tasteless food that promises to transport them to weight-loss nirvana as they pound on the treadmill for hours and hours every other day, you’ll be having a chocolate-fest and doing 10 minutes of eccentric exercise once a week.

Warm the erythritol or xylitol and the coconut oil in a pan and stir until the sweetener is melted.

Pour the oil mixture over the nuts and seeds in the bowl and mix very well, ensuring everything is evenly coated.

Pour the frothy egg white into the bowl and mix well so that it is evenly distributed.

Spread the nut mixture evenly on a baking sheet in a ½″ thick layer.

Bake at 300F in the center of the oven (about 40 minutes) until deep golden brown, stirring and re-spreading every 10 minutes to ensure even coloring.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

Add cocoa nibs, stir well and store in an air-tight jar.

Top Recipe Tips

You can make your granola finer by simply chopping the nuts into smaller pieces. You may need to add extra sweetener and coconut oil to ensure everything is coated since smaller pieces means a larger surface area to coat.

Take care to let the nuts cool completely before removing from the baking sheet. The sweetener coating them will be extremely hot.

Don’t panic if the nuts seem soft when they come out of the oven. They crisp up as they cool, and once cold are all crunch all the time.

Mix heavy (double) cream with equal amounts of water if you like a thinner “milk” on your granola, or are looking to consume less fat than using all heavy cream.

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Ladyp1234 -Your encouragement and enthusiasm is just what I needed. I’d been telling myself that the slip ups didn’t matter but it’s so much more reassuring to hear it from someone else. And the great thing about sane food is that I know it makesme feel better so I surprise myself by keeping going! Despite my brain getting confused with the old habits of thinking that starches and sweets will make me feel better!
Thank you ReplyCancel

carrie-Hurrah, Lady P!! The longer you are SANE, the less your brain will try and confuse you into thinking starches and sweets make you feel better. Keep on keepin’ on – you can do it!!!ReplyCancel

Tracy -I have asked you before about the sugar free syrup. Why would this with artificial sweetener be considered Sane? Is raw honey sane?ReplyCancel

carrie-Hi Tracy – I responded to your last question on sugar-free syrup. Artifical sweeteners are not considered SANE, they are neutral. Honey of any kind is inSANE. The body treats honey just like sugar. Hope that helps!ReplyCancel

allisol -I made this granola this weekend. Nice and easy! A few comments… as always. :) For one, the recipe left out when to put in the coconut. I am a smart woman so I added it in with the nuts. For two, who knew that hazelnuts were filberts? Thankfully the guy at the store knew cause I did not!

I learned that coursely crushing hazelnuts is easier w/ the food processor. I should have just done that for a few seconds. Instead I used the ziplock-bag-and-pound-with-a-glass technique. That doesn’t work so well when your husband is trying to watch football in the adjoining room.

Once the granola was finished I wanted to try some but I had already OD’d on chocolate yogurt for the day so I just had some in a bowl with almond milk, the way I used to eat granola. It was…eh. I think that wasn’t the right application.

This morning I had it with the chocolate yogurt and it was tasty tasty. It was a fantastic crunch with lots of nice flavors, it held up very well in the yogurt (no mushy granola by the end) and it was very very filling. A thumbs up, for sure.

I did notice that I was rather…tooty. I guess those whole flax seeds will do that to you? Or the nuts? It was quite the household conversation for the rest of the night last night. If you are having it for the first time I wouldn’t recommend it before a dinner party or something.

So yet another good option from Carrie. You are so very good to us!ReplyCancel

carrie-OK Allison – I was just logging off my email and I saw your comment come in and then I had to log back into my blog because I was laughing so hard I had to say something. You kill me. Coconut is a nut so in my mind it got put in the bowl with the other nuts and seeds, but maybe that’s just me? Thank heavens for guys at the store!!! I think you owe him granola now. I chopped the filberts with a knife, but that’s probably just me too. Plus, everything is easier if you only have cats :-) I ate Salmon Burgers yesterday and was very glad I only have cats, for the same reason you won’t eat granola before a dinner party. Who knew? I AM going to bed now.ReplyCancel

allisol -OMG did I really just post for the world to see that I didn’t know that a coconut was a nut? Really? That’s just wonderful. In my defense, all the other nut items were brown and roundish. The coconut looked like someone took a pocketknife to a bar of soap. So there was no nut resemblance. Perhaps if I had the whole coconut fresh from the tree sitting on my counter it might have dawned on me. Probably not, but perhaps.

Thanks for the warning about the salmon burgers. I’ll add it to the “not before a dinner party” list.ReplyCancel

carrie-Next time, when you use a whole coconut, please viedo the process for us so we can learn, Allison :-)ReplyCancel

Claudia -Hi Carrie. I feel like I am always asking you stupid questions. So, here is another one. Store in air tight jar, but at what temperature? I was thinking since it’s made up of a bunch of nuts (that can go rancid), that I should place in the freezer or at least a cool, dark cabinet? Where do you keep your finished product?

The recipe hit the spot! My 5 year old came out of his bedroom and asked, “What is that amazing smell?” Now, that is a compliment!!
Thanks again!
ClaudiaReplyCancel

carrie-Claudia – there is no such thing as a stupid question! I keep mine in the ‘fridge in summer, kitchen cupboard in the winter. IT typically doesn’t last long enough to go rancid :-) Glad your 5 year old was impressed!!!ReplyCancel

danielle -Hi Carrie thank you for all your time and energy sharing all these amazing recipes! we are just getting sane and loving it. our goal is to eat whole, nutritous dense foods. do you have any alternatives to the sugar free chocolate syrup?ReplyCancel

carrie-Hi Stefanie! Cocoa nibs are cocoa beans that have been crushed into small pieces.ReplyCancel

Jon -Hi, do you have a brand of sugar-free chocolate syrup and coconut oil so i can look and see if i find something close to it in Norway? This just looks to good to be untryed. :) great site. Thanks for sharing.ReplyCancel

Debra Huewe -Hi Carrie, I haven’t tried this yet. but I have a question, how do you remove the hazelnut skins? I Googled it and ended up boiling for three minutes with baking soda, rinsing and then rubbing them in a towel. At least that is what I tried to do. It took way to long.
Do you have a faster easier way?ReplyCancel

carrie-Debra – spread them on a baking sheet and toast them under the broiler (grill if you’re not in US) for a few minutes. Watch them all the time as they can burn in heartbeat. When they have cooled enough to handle, put them in a clean towel and rub vigorously.ReplyCancel

Kerry -Hiya carrie, you are amazing you have completely changed me and my children’s life we eat sane everyday thanks to you and Jonathan. My question I would like to ask is this granola is it eaten with the chocolate supreme yogurt?ReplyCancel

carrie-Hi Kerry – I ate it with the Chocolate Supreme Yogurt, but then I was having a serious chocolate craving that day :-)ReplyCancel

Arlene -This looks SOOO good, and the thought of chocolate yogurt is making me drool! But…where do I find chocolate yogurt recipe? I clicked on the link in the recipe and I got an oops didn’t work message, so used the search feature, no recipe found. Help a gal out?ReplyCancel